Sunday, May 29, 2011

"The Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) illustrates how teachers can use technology to enhance learning for K-12 students. The TIM incorporates five interdependent characteristics of meaningful learning environments: active, constructive, goal directed (i.e., reflective), authentic, and collaborative (Jonassen, Howland, Moore, & Marra, 2003). The TIM associates five levels of technology integration (i.e., entry, adoption, adaptation, infusion, and transformation) with each of the five characteristics of meaningful learning environments. Together, the five levels of technology integration and the five characteristics of meaningful learning environments create a matrix of 25 cells as illustrated below. "

You may have come across this already? I found it when exploring updates on the school Hua Shi Yi Fu Zhong High School who came from Wuhan to attend the Flat Classroom Conference February 2011.http://www.wfp.org/students-and-teachers/teachers/blog/helping-hungry-while-learning-english

"# What’s the impact of messages related to classwork when they’re part of a large stream of messages students receive from friends, family, horoscope advice, sports scores and so on?# What sort of learning happens best (or is reinforced best, perhaps) via SMS?# How can these sorts of messages be adapted to students’ progress and how can they be sequenced and scaffolded over time?# How many students are able and willing to participate in these sorts of educational activities via their mobile phone? Can students afford the texting fees? Do they want to use their text-messaging allocations for this purpose?# Can we subsidize this sort of SMS traffic for student populations?# If these sorts of messages between home and school become more common, will there be a way to include parents and parents’ phones in the loop?# Can these quizzes be sent to parents’ phones so that they can have the opportunity to pose a question to their children? "

"Educating for Global Competence: Preparing Our Youth to Engage the World. written by Veronica Boix Mansilla and Anthony Jackson is now available for free here. This is a great resource for educators who want to incorporate Global Competence into their classrooms and schools."

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Classrooms from Canada, USA, South Korea and Qatar are more than half way through the "A Week in the Life…"11-1 project this semester (a Flat Classroom Project for Elementary School students). Cross-classroom teams are collecting multimedia to represent the main topics:

School time

Languages & Clothing

Housing & Transportation

Leisure time

Food & Celebrations

Environment

Teacher leaders for each team are supporting collaborative conversations via wiki discussion tabs and in Edmodo, our first point for networking and community building, but continuing to develop as a place to share resources and ideas.

It is important at this stage of the project to find and maintain perspective. Yes, we have limited time left in the school year, one class has about 2 weeks I think! Yes, we now have multimedia flying in all directions causing some confusion and stress as to what is the best way to collate and present so that meaningful knowledge is gained from it. Yes, we continue to be challenged by communication and collaboration strategies while using Web 2.0 tools. However, let’s step back for a minute and look at the bigger picture.

Students and teachers who did not know each other before are now WORKING TOGETHER! yes, connecting, communicating, collaborating….as though they are one classroom. Some classes have initiated real-time Skype sessions to further cement this connection and add extra engagement to the classroom as an activity. In the background teachers are meeting once a week in a virtual classroom (currently Elluminate) to discuss all aspects of the project, to support each other and to move this collaboration to a conclusion. Yesterday the online meeting was 5:30am China (my time….and actually a good time for me as the alarm always goes off at 5am in our house, but I try to limit myself to ONE 5:30am meeting per week); 6:30 am in Sth Korea for Nick (he was talking from the kitchen waiting for his family to come in for breakfast); almost midnight for Robyn in Qatar!, and late in the evening for Nancy in Prague!; while on the other side of the world it was mid to late afternoon for USA and Canada, with after school meetings, transport needs etc. I am always amazed at how dedicated Flat Classroom teachers fit our meetings into their already overloaded day.

So, back to perspective…….This project is a chance to leave a small legacy, a snapshot of how the world is now. I was amazed at learning about the Doomsday Project this week, where after 25 years historical data is being accessed. This project is or can be very much like this. In 25 years from now, students can access our project archives and see and hear what a day in the life is really like in different parts of the world. I encourage all teachers and teams to keep this in mind as you work towards the end. How will others view this? Have you clearly explained the artifacts and linked them in creative ways? Have you reflected on them and asked further questions of your team classrooms?

Good luck to everyone as this project comes together!

Read more teacher comments and stay in touch with this project via the teacher blog.

The Geo-Historian project is aimed at educating K-12 students to become local historians who create digital content for an audience that transcends the walls of their classrooms. Project activities include the creation of curriculum on how to do digital, local history, training teachers how to apply it in their classrooms, and implementation in local schools. Student-created digital content will be accessible in relevant historical locations in the City of Kent via QR codes that can be scanned with mobile phones.

Sunday, May 01, 2011

I don't think I have featured this blog post by friend and Flat Classroom Student Summit co-leader, Kim Cofino, on my blog yet. In the absence of my own reflection (still to come!), Kim says: Although there were a number of challenges, I continue to believe that this is the future of conferences. Let me tell you why:1. It's the students.2. It's the action.3. It's the leadership.4. It's the flexibility.It's the approach.read the post for more details!